TODAY’S presidential and National Assembly elections mark the beginning of the fourth democratic transition process since the end of military dictatorship on May 29, 1999. So far, the run-up to the elections has featured unimaginable political intrigues contrived to scuttle the democratic process, including a specious postponement and a sinister opposition to the use of the permanent voter card and electronic card reader for the polls.
Other dangerous moves to foil the elections were the orchestrated campaign to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, and a baleful plot to foist an Interim Government on the country. There was also the attempted manipulation of the judicial system through a flurry of court cases to prevent the elections being held.
Now, the 2015 elections are here at last. Starting with the Presidential and National Assembly polls today and followed by the governorship and state House of Assembly elections on April 11, voting will take place in 119, 973 polling units across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. According to INEC, about 69 million persons with the PVCs will constitute the electorate.
Yet, voting is the easy part. Ensuring that the votes count is more challenging. Home and abroad, observers view the elections with remarkable trepidation because the stakes, as usual, are high. At stake for most politicians, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, is the power to dispense and receive cash and patronage rather than competing ideologies. With annual salaries and benefits of as much as $189,500 a year, according to The Economist, Nigeria’s lawmakers earn more than their American and European counterparts. Given the extensive powers of the executive, whoever wins the presidency has a critical say in dispensing about $70 billion a year in state revenues, more than two-thirds of which come from oil and gas exports. But Obama says Nigerians have “a historic opportunity to help write the next chapter of Nigeria’s progress.” Truly, decades of regress must be reversed beginning with these elections.
Nigeria is in crisis on all fronts. While the security perspective of this calamity is the raging Boko Haram terrorism in the North-East region, the economic manifestations are the devalued currency, fearsome unemployment and infrastructure decay. A report says that, on the average, an estimated 27 Nigerians have been killed every day in terror-related attacks in 2014. Around 16,000 have died since 2009. Politically, Nigeria remains a fractured country with ethnic and religious cleavages scorching at the heart of the society.
Yet, since 1999, Nigerians have been denied the opportunity to freely elect their leaders as the votes have been quite obviously and blatantly rigged. As a result of massive rigging, poll results have always been controversial and violent. The rigging in 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections cannot be ignored just because the Supreme Court eventually validated the results and the declared winners. The 2011 elections were, to some extent, credible because voters protected their votes directly by remaining at the voting stations after casting their ballots and observing the remaining voting and the counting process.
For 2007, the polls were disastrous, with even more rigging and violence than during the previous presidential election in 2003, when stolen ballot boxes and bogus vote counts marred the polling, says Foreign Affairs Magazine, a United States Council of Foreign Affairs publication. The presidential and a number of governorship elections, according to the European Union report, were marred by serious irregularities and fraud. In a certain number of states, minimum standards for democratic elections were not met. The rigging of a few local elections, especially the Ekiti State governorship poll, was most egregiously insidious. The scathing reports were no out-and-out surprise. By all means, this must not be allowed to repeat itself.
Elections are too important a matter to be left to politicians and political parties alone. One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence government decision-making is through voting. It is a formal expression of preference for a candidate for office and a government in power. In order to forestall another rigging, voters should be ready to protect their votes and citizens must be prepared to display people power to safeguard our emerging democracy.
This is a defining moment for the country. And extraordinary situations require extraordinary measures. It is harder for politicians to meddle and steal when bureaucrats, like election officials, are under intense public scrutiny. Political parties and politicians who are sure of winning elections fair and square need not worry about ‘people power.’ International election observers should be given unfettered access to monitor the voting.
Consistently, international observers have reported numerous incidents of ballot-box stuffing, vote falsification and other violations in all our elections since 1999. The starting point, therefore, is for the voters to ensure that their votes are not stolen again. With the provisions of the law, voters must prevent ballot box stuffing and falsification of results. Though the Electoral Act Section 129 (1) frowns on loitering, nothing in the entire Act or any other related laws forbids citizens from not acting collectively to prevent the commission of criminal acts, especially electoral fraud.
The neutrality of the security agencies is a key prerequisite for peaceful elections. It is not the duty of the police or any law enforcement agent to determine who should be prevented or allowed into the polling station. INEC insists that security agents are not allowed to interfere with the conduct of the polls, counting of the ballots, or the collation and declaration of results. According to INEC, only the Presiding Officer “has the right to bar anyone from entering or remaining in the polling station should the individual’s conduct be disorderly.” They must comply with any lawful directive issued by or under the authority of INEC.
This is the decision time for Nigerians. This democracy must be defended at all costs
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